Zanu-PF to hold series of meetings on economy

ZANU-PF will hold a series of meetings next week where it will deliberate on issues affecting the economy, the party and the country in general.

Party secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo said the party would host the Politburo, the Central Committee and the National Consultative Assembly between Wednesday and Friday where a number of issues affecting the country and the party would be dealt with.

Said Chombo: "These are constitutional meetings where every month we meet as the Politburo and every quarter we meet as the Central Committee. So this is a second meeting of the Central Committee and every year, we meet twice as the National Consultative Assembly. So the Friday meeting is the first of the NCA.

"We're going to cover issues that relate to the economy, the party, drought among others. The Politburo is meeting on Wednesday, the 8th, Central Committee on the 9th on Thursday and National Consultative Assembly on the 10th on Friday."

Chombo said President Mugabe would chair all three meetings.

Next week's meetings come on the back of Politburo and Central Committee meetings in April where President Mugabe called for unity in the revolutionary party and its affiliate organisations.

This has, however, remained elusive despite the success of the Million Man March in solidarity with President Mugabe a fortnight ago.

Party cadres continue to attack each other in public and through the private media despite calls by President Mugabe for comrades to raise their concerns through party structures.

At the April Central Committee meeting, President Mugabe said: "Some people are working on the succession issue. Where will it be in the event that the President goes. And that there are factions, factions that accuse each other and found a rival boxing ground which is that of opposition papers. That's where the fighting takes place. This said against someone. That someone also sometimes in defence but sometimes almost on his own offensive way makes a critical statement damaging the other side.

"It's not just the newspapers, the opposition papers that constitute the fighting ground, it's also the Internet I understand.

"The Internet where I understand we get all kinds of abuses on the party, of individuals, all of us who hold positions, or attacks on one occasion or another. And there are no holds at all then. The language is primitive, abusive and quite rotten, and people take cover because the Internet shields them.

"Some often they speak quite openly any regular way of ours. What I don't know is whether that way we can achieve true unity. We may have physical togetherness as we're now bodies together but the minds are now quite in contest with each other."

On the economy, the cash crisis bedeviling the country that has seen queues emerging at financial institutions should feature prominently at next week's meetings.

The government has also been importing food to distribute throughout the country as villagers face hunger due to the El Nino-induced drought that has affected a majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.